Home Safety - Guns, Locks, Emergency Plan - Part 1

 A month or so ago, I heard a story (as I am sure many of you did) about a little girl who was home alone when two burglars broke in and she called 911 and climbed into a closet. 

During the call, the police arrived at her home and one of the robbers jumped into the closet with the little girl and actually touched her arm while in the closet before the police arrived in the room where the closet was located. 

When the police got to the room, the little girl ran out of the closet screaming to the police. 

I heard a story about a new mother whose husband died and she ended up shooting and killing the men that broke into her trailer to protect her baby. 

I heard another story of a little girl who used a shot gun to kill an intruder to her home while her parents were gone. 

I ask myself, what would that little girl have done if she hadn't been able to call 911 and was in that closet and they found her? Or, what would that mother have done if she didn't have a gun before the police arrived. Or the other little girl? 

Several years ago, I bought myself some guns. Being a single mom, I have worried about protecting my daughters. What would I do if someone broke in? So, I bought the guns but didn't do much with them. 


After hearing about the girl in the closet, I thought to myself, "I had better give my girls something to protect themselves!" 

I had pepper spray keychains and showed them how to use it. That is something they can have with them at all times. 

They don't have to get close to use it and it would deter a dog at least, but hopefully it would deter anyone they feel threatened by at any time. 

The bedrooms all have wasp spray that will shoot 15-20 feet of poison at someone. I want the girls to feel they have a way to protect themselves if needed and feel comfortable with guns as I think education is the best way to combat fear. I plan on them getting a permit to carry when I do. I signed up before but had scheduling conflicts and figure it is now time.

I had the locks changed as I had an incident over Fathers Day. I got rid of the "hide a key" as I assume that was an issue with our incident. I think criminal minds just start looking under plants etc. knowing most of us have a key hidden somewhere. The lock guy I used charged me $50 but I do live in a small town. You can call and find out how much they charge deciding if that is your best option. They can make all the locks on the house fit to one new key. 

If you are big on doing it yourself, (I have done this before) or are tight on funds, you can take the locks off, take them to the hardware store and they will re-key all the locks to the same key. You take them home and put them back in. It cost me about $5 a lock. Call your hardware stores and get an estimate. That is a cheaper option.

Alarm systems help but if you know someone with them, often the beeping gets overwhelming and they don't always use it. The Elizabeth Smart story is an example of that. Others pass around the code and never change it and all the kids friends know it.

Dogs can help sometimes with barking but I know someone that told me they used to have friends that specialized in houses with big dogs as they would open the door a crack and the animal would put it's head in the door crack to get at them and the robber would then crush the dog's head in the door. (Yes, I am sad to say I knew someone like that.)

Continued tomorrow....